The Veil of the Law Part 1

Understanding Sonship Today’s Focus: The Veil of the Law: Part 1 Scripture: 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 Greetings Kingdom Citizens Now the first thing we need to understand is a veil is something that covers another. A veil is used in wedding ceremonies to cover the face of the bride before she is in front of her husband. In addition a veil was used in the temple to separate the place called the Holy of All from the outside world (we will revisit this in the next message). But today we will look at how the veil is used to separate the sons from the slaves and those under the Law from those under grace. Let’s start with our scripture 2 Corinthians 3:7! In this first verse we see Paul telling the church at Corinth that the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones was glorious. What? A ministry of death that was glorious? So before we go any further what is this ministry of death? It is found in Exodus 20. It is the Ten Commandments or the Law. How do we know? Let’s finish reading verse 7: “the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away”. This happened when they received the Law because they rejected the covenant of sonship by not going up into the mountain where the presence of the Lord was which would have changed them. Now we have some conflicting words in this one scripture and they are: Ministration of Death and Glory and both words are referring to the Law. Funny when you try to cover multiple scriptures God can talk from one and give you an entire message! Ministration of Death How was the Law a ministry of death? When God gave Israel the Law He wanted to lay out the expectations of what is permissible and what is not. Of course God was making them a nation and every nation has laws. Now inside these 640 laws given to Israel is a consequence for every broken law. Some consequences happened on a national level and others resulted in personal consequences. Now, the reason it was the ministry of death is because if you broke a certain law, the consequence was death. No ifs ands or buts about it. Now believe that God kept His part of this covenant even the requirement of death upon someone who broke the law. Now how many laws do we break daily in our countries, regardless if it is as small as littering to murder. We may not get caught in our countries but best believe you could not hide from God and His Law. But what made the Law unique was even though it was a ministry of death it also preserved their lives. How? There were dietary laws, tort laws, property laws and family laws. It gave them order to prevent chaos. But as we know whenever you do not obey God, you lend your life to chaos, stress and even death. But let’s look at the glory of the Law. How is the Law glorious if it also the ministry of death? The Law was glorious because it showed God’s goodness, mercy and righteousness. The Law was extended to them even in the midst of their stubbornness, selfishness and ungrateful hearts to do what they wanted to do. The Law provided order and guidelines that were established to preserve their lives. Now it only worked for those who obeyed the Law. The Law was glorious because it showed the righteousness of God. In order for you to receive from God you must be in right-positioning with authority and the Law kept the citizen in position by making them aware of what is right and wrong. But let’s look at what 2 Corinthians 3:7 says at the end: The glory was to be done away. Some versions say a fading glory. In other words it is not one that will last and believe this, that it is not the one God wants for you and let me tell you why: The Law does not: 1. Make Sons 2. Raise Sons 3. Educate Sons 4. Make a son aware of who he is. Now if God wants you to be a son then it is clear to me and hopefully to you that He does not want you to live under the Law. Living under the Law separates you from God. Many people do it thinking it pleases God and appeases Him to get something from Him and sad to say, if you are a born again believer, if you choose to go under the law it is as if you want to give up your freedom which Christ paid for with His blood to go back and be under the Law which enslaves you and takes your sonship and rights away. I know for some of you that may offend you but we will deal with this particular issue in the next message. At Our Father’s Service, Elder Calvin Calhoun, Jr.